Chicago schools consider unified calendar

By Noreen S. Ahmed-UllahTribune reporter

Chicago Public Schools students would be on the same calendar in the coming year, one that begins Aug. 26 — at least a week before most students now start school — and ends June 10, under a proposal the Board of Education will vote on Wednesday.

The new calendar, which CPS said was developed with the help of the Chicago Teachers Union and a survey of 13,000 parents, students, teachers and principals, does away with half-days and includes a three-day fall break during Thanksgiving week.

CPS has been on a two-track system for some time, with some students starting school in early August and others the day after Labor Day. In recent years, many CPS schools have moved to the calendar that begins in early August.

"We are one District, with one vision and we want to provide our school community with one calendar that makes sense from the classroom to the kitchen table," CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a release.

Under the proposed calendar, winter break would run from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3 and spring break from April 14 to April 19.

Professional development days for teachers, when students are not in school, would include Nov. 1 in 2013 and Jan. 24, March 28 and June 11 in 2014. Students also would be home during parent-teacher conferences days Nov. 12 in 2013 and April 7 in 2014. Schools also would be closed Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lincoln's Birthday and Memorial Day.